Rickenbacker TR-35B

Simplicity is very sexy. Crafted not only with pride but also with the best components to date, all made here in U. S. A. Nowadays most electrical products are made and/or assembled in foreign countries. Taiwan, China you name it. I'm keeping my eyes open for a TRANSONIC 200!

The sound quality is GREAT! I knew of Rickenbacker making amps from the 30's til the 80's. I own a Rick 4003 bass guitar together (Rick amp and bass) produce the most unique sound. You can not compare it no anything else. Just outstanding! My baby is very powerful. The schematic for this baby, model TR35B dates 1979 and was manufactured in 1984. Many great bands/artists have and still use Rickenbacker. FYI: Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page) used Rick amps model "Transonic series 200" when they conquered the good ol' U. S. of A! Imagine that.

Not only do I depend on this beauty (BEAST in sheep's clothing) any time anywhere but I look forward to coming home from a long day's work just to plug-in and Jam! The sound brings me back to life...And it's simplicity makes very sexy too. In this case less is more, without a doubt. I found this amp at a music store here in Santa Barbara, CA. the guy working at the time was this young guy (high school student). I asked him about the amp and his reply was that; he knew nothing about Rickenbacker amps, which at the end worked to my advantage. he told me that the amp had been in his store (dad's the owner) since January. At the time it was July of the same year. The amp was in the corner with a box over it (mixer) and covered in dust. It almost broke my heart and at the same time I wanted to slap that kid!

The asking price was $200 I pulled out a $100 bill and said to him; "You can either keep the amp in the collecting dust or put $100 in you wallet...Your choice. The kid almost broke my fingers and said "I'm selling it 'as is' no returns." I played his game and replied " I'll take my chances, I can always use the box." I left the store and never looked back! I JUST WON THE LOTTO.

I got home took it apart, cleaned (dusted) every part I was able to touch. It's all original and everything on this baby works PERFECT! A couple of scratches on the veneer although nothing major. In addition to my new found love, I own a Peavey bass amp model Basic 112. Comes with a 12" sub powered by 50 watts. My Rick amp carries an original 15" Celestion (originals are made in England) in perfect condition. Many think, that because the model reads "TR35B" it's a 35 watts but in fact it's a 75 watts! I still don't know what the "record IN-OUT" is for. There's very little information about this gem. Here's another FYI: Like I said before Rickenbacker was making amp's since the 50's. During that time when the amp's had problems they would take them to a T.V. repair shop. Which at the time Clarence Leonidas Fender now FENDER musical instruments was working there. Rumor has it that "Leo" Fender copied the "blueprints" from Rick's amp's and the rest is history. Now if you look at the early fender amp's they look very I mean VERY similar to the early Rickenbacker amp's. Here's a web-page with some info on the different models.

http://jzu.free.fr/rick/amp/TRR.html

Won this amp at an auction for $90. before tax's. Don't have any idea when it was built. Trebel, mid range, bass & volume,,two input jacks, two record jacks, two on-off positions. For a bass amp, just about as plain as plain can be,,but I don't play bass through it. I use a Boss GT-6 effects processer & play a regular guitar through it.

Loud,,,more than enough power. With the settings from the Boss GT-6, I have never had to crank this thing up over a # 4 volume setting, & that would be in a large room or studio. I have a small studio in my home, so I've don't ever have to go over # 2-3 on the volume.

As said before,,I don't know how old this amp is,,but there is nothing wrong with it,,nothing. I belive I could depend on this amp without a back up. I have a back up "Peavey Envoy 110", but don't even think about dragging it along. Untill this amp starts screwing up,,,I won't drag that Peavey anywhere except to change where it sits in my studio.

Bought at auction,,,,sold & bought "as is".

If stolen or destroyed in a fire,,I'd look & find the thief,,or the guy who struck the match. Yeah,,,for $90. I'd buy another one,,,,for a under average player like me,,,there's nothing better I could use.

I got this Rickenbacker amp from a friend of a friend. I have to assume it was made in the early 80's. This amp does not have many features, but who needs them if you can play ? It was just what I was looking for. Lightweight(32lbs), 1-15 and portable.

Ok this is where I could not believe the sound !
I am using a Rickenbacker 4003 bass with this amp and I've never heard anything like it.It's perfect for my Beatle band.I did not want to buy a Vox & a Hofner and pretend to be Paul(There's only one). This combo does it! I have been playing for a long time and I have had lots of stuff, but this amp is the best.( For what it is )
I noticed there is a ext cab jack in the back and wondered did Rickenbacker make an ext cab for this model ?

This amp is almost like new so I don't think it has to many hours on it.So far so good

N/A

I have tried lots of bass amps and owned more. I looked at Hartke,Peavey(don't asked me why I looked at that one but I did)Ampeg
Fender,Mesa,Vox,Genz Benz and anything I could find.This small but loud amp has a sound that's different(in a great way). I don't know what it is but whatever Rickenbacker did, they did it right.

Before I seen this amp, I wasn't even aware that Rickenbacker made amp's and I've been playing since the late 70's and done some heavy gigging in all those years up to date. This combo AMP Was made from what I gather in the early 1980's. It measures 20 inches by 19 and is about 11 inches deep. It is a perfect small, but powerful bass amp for me to cart around for smaller gigs and jam sessions. There aren't too many features on this amp, 2 inputs, a pre-amp in and out(it says record in between the jacks!?). It has Volume, Treble, Mid and Bass controls. The Tone controls are extremly responsive allowing the user to dial in some nice sounds for a bare bones amp of this size. It says on the back: INPUT POWER 120 240V. 50 60 Hz 75 watts. and the Model number (TR35B) suggests it may only be 35 watts, but it seems more powerful than both those numbers to me. This amp is also solid state. It has one 15 inch speaker. I found it at a Goodwill store here in San Francisco for $90.00 and I feel it is well worth it. I was weary at first as to why and how it ended up at a goodwill store. I managed to get a stereo signal through it to make sure it at least worked and sound would come out of it. When I got it home I was very pleased after pluging in one of my basses and fooled around with it for a while. And then I was quite suprised how responsive the tone controls are. I don't think I've ever had an amp that is this sensitive, and I've owned quite a few in my 25 years of playing both guitar and bass.

Im using a Yamaha RB200 (bottom of the line) bass with EMG passive pickups and a Ibanez SGR-800 with Active pickups. It is fine for what I need it for when playing in smaller clubs or jams and packs a punch. I use it for hard rock and blues. It is very quiet at any level and is easy to move around. I rarely turn it up past 5 and there is virtually no distortion.

I would feel comfortable using this amp without a back-up if I had to, but I don't usually like to put myself in that position. I always like to have a back-up if possible. I haven't had the amp for to long, but I havent had any problems with it and I've run it for several hours at a time.

I have no experience dealing with the maker of this amp. I couldn't find any info on the web about this baby and I spent a few hours looking, actually, this is the first referance I've found to this particular model number.

I've been playing for about 25 years now and still am very active. I am in one band that has a 3 album deal (The Band is Warning SF check out our website if you like at: WarningSF.com) and also working on a few other projects as well as solo material for a CD im going to try to market. I play Hard Rock and Heavy Metal but love Progressive rock as well. I also play in a Black Sabbath Tribute band from time to time for the fun of it. For Guitar I just got rid of my Hiwatt and Marshall, do I am left with a Crate G130C XL and 2 Marshall 4x12 Cabinets (1 from the 70's the other from the 80's) Both 1960B cabs. Most likely Im getting a Line 6 Head and floorboard when the HD 3's arrive next month. I also have a few effects I use: a T.C. Electronic's Chourus/Flanger/Modulator, a Yamaha Multi FX Processor, a Quadraverb and Cry baby. I have Several Guitars, a 1980 Gibson Flying "V", a Yamaha SGB-2100 with EMG's (Plays AWESOME!), an Aria Pro II Urchin with a Floyd Rose 1st issue (This thing looks funny but plays better than alot of Gibson's or Fenders and has incredible sustain)a Peavy Copy of a Telecaster that plays very nice and a ES-175. I also have two 6-string and two 12-string acoustics and one Classical guitar. For Bass I have a Trace Elliot Pre-amp and a Yamaha 750 watt power amp and 2 SVT 8-10 Cabinets. I also have a Stewart PA-1200 dual monaural power amp for back up. This system simply crushes for the bigger gigs. So, Im reall happy to have this Ricky Amp now because I HATE dragging the SVT cab's around. Anyone of you that has a SVT knows what I mean...lol :o) I mentioned what basses I have up there somewhere in another section. For Keyboards I have a Korg Triton, a Korg O1W/fd, a Yamaha CS15 Mono Synth (very much like a Mini Moog) and a set of Moog Taurus pedals and a bunch of FX's and EQ's. I also have 2 Mixers (1 for Live and 1 recording board) Tascam DA-88, another Digital 8-track and some other gooddies for the home studio. That's most of it.

If this thing died or got stolen, I would be bummed, and I would seek to replace it, with the same amp if possible. It just has great tone packs a lot of power for something this small and only weigh's about 30lbs. I didn't really compare it to any other products when I bought it because it was at the Goodwill store and I grabbed it, but I have played on lots of other amps and this is far better than most I have seen of it's size. I don't dis-like anything about the amp. It would be nice if it had an effects loop in case I would use this for a keyboard amp as I have read someone else did in another review someone else did. I suppose I will try it out for that too now.

This monster was created in 1983.
It's a solid state unit. The construction is beautiful, you literally can't see a join anywhere. It's almost like a second vinyl covering was added in the final assembly. I've never had the back off for this reason. But hey..if something works..don't fix it!
She's a dual channel, dual input, 2 fuse unit. There is a preamp buss and a recording buss.
From the model numver, I assum,e this unit is 35 watts. There's more power here than I know what to do with.
I gig fairly regularly with this amp. Large bars and pubs and special halls with 200-250 capacity. I've never cranked this unit over 3.5
It's got this brutal 15" honker in it. I use it with my T3 (keys), and it's got incredible sound.
It's a very basic unit. Volume. Low/Mid/& Hi Range controls, and that's it...no other toys on board, and I really haven't found a need for any either.
Check it out here: http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/mccorp/framespage.html

I'm running a Korg T3 through this amp, and the onboard features of the T3 are brought out beautifully through this amp. I can get an amazing B3 reproduction with no problem, anything from Rascals to Procal Harum to 10CC.

She weighs about 40 lbs. I wouldn't hesitate to gig without a back-up.
I baby this beast. She gets a regular dusting and wipe down, and I've never had any problems.
I found her oin a pawn shop, and I'm sure the guy didn't know what he had, 'cos I literally stole it, for what I paid, ($225 Canadian)

"Touch Wood", I've never had to get in contact with Rickenbacker, and with any luck I'll never have to.

I've been playing for about 35 years, guitar mainly, only started playing keys about 15 years ago.
I own a US Tele (blonde), Fender 112 Deluxe, Korg T3, Korg G3, the Rick, and a bunch of Recording gear.
Our band plays cover's from 50's 60's..right up to top 40.
If anyone stole this unit, I would hunt them down, Big Time.
I've tried a Yamaha keyboard amp, and a few Peavy's also...NO comparison.